Feb 24, 1998

Hail,

"The Daria Hunter" was certainly an interesting episode. The character exploration and interaction was great and, even though it didn't focus on Daria, is something that will be nice to see in the future. The Fashion Club rumble heats up, although it's been a rather strange on-again off-again thing so far. Perhaps this will bring it into permanent (until finished, anyway) focus. (Wonder where the Fashion Club will get ahold of a fat lady to sing?) Mrs. Barch finally finds a man she likes (who didn't know what would happen as soon as they saw the two stuck in the same tent?). I can't believe that Helen and Mrs. Li were on such good terms to begin with, not after last episode's threatened lawsuit. Those two should have been at each other's throats from the start. Mack and Jodie make their usual token appearance. It'd be nice to find out more about them sometime as well.

Not to say that everything was great. There are a couple things that bother me. The scene where Brittany kicks the gun out of Mr. DeMartino's hand is probably the worst of the bunch. The handsprings don't bother me, she is a cheerleader after all. However, it is hard to kick something out of someone's hands. Unless she's been taking martial arts lessons on the side, she shouldn't have had a chance here. Of course, she may take the lessons. She beats up Kevin every once in a while. At least this fits her personality - she shouldn't have ninjed at him, she should have shot him. She's much more into the display than actually getting something done. However, if Mr. DeMartino went to military school, why didn't he hit her? Everyone in this show was a horrible shot (they must have all had semi-automatic guns too), but even I can hit a stationary person at that range. The general lack of paintball knowledge was another. Okay, so they couldn't use the masks - we have to identify the characters by their faces for the most part - but I was still waiting for someone to get a mouth full of paint and some loose teeth. They should have showed the artists a paintball gun catalog...
The other general problem ties in with Brittany's pounding on Kevin (on the bus, I'm not worried about on the field). She's given him a black-eye before, she's knocked the breath out of him, and the way he cringes after saying something totally stupid shows she does this moderately often. Just think of the outcry there'd be if he ever hit her...
This show continues the whole "women are equal with men except where they're better" trend that gets on my nerves. We've got one or two possible prospects for an interesting guy, but we never see them (mostly Mack, although Upchuck could be interesting if he controls his hormones).

It's a good start. We're seeing more of the "lesser" characters, we're seeing more of the major characters, and some of them are evolving away from the stereotypes into real people. The character development is probably one of the best parts of the show. It's rare enough in live-action comedies, almost nonexistent in animation (the exception being some of the good Anime).

Wraith